By Design takes a closer look at the world of design, in moments big and small.

In January 2024, while the Canadian playwright and author Jordan Tannahill and the American actor Brandon Flynn were in Ottawa caring for Tannahill’s sick mother, Flynn was scrolling through some New York listings. Upon spotting a 750-square-foot prewar apartment in the East Village, the couple sent their real estate agent to investigate. He called back to warn them that it wouldn’t stay on the market long. Flynn, who had been renting a place in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, decided to drive 11 hours in a snowstorm to visit the two-bedroom property himself. The pair had a few reservations — the closets were small, the bathroom was outdated — but made an offer anyway. Flynn, 31, who recently played Marlon Brando Off Broadway in “Kowalski,” liked that the top-floor residence was at least big enough for dinner parties, and Tannahill, 36, whose 2021 novel, “The Listeners,” was adapted earlier this year into a BBC series starring Rebecca Hall, loved what he calls the neighborhood’s “extraordinary punk and queer history.”